Literary meets culinary in 'Table of Contents'

Wednesday

Dec 15, 2010 at 12:01 AMDec 15, 2010 at 3:17 PM

Gelman, a former public relations consultant, and Krupp, a former history teacher, have a knack for connecting good food and literature. “Table of Contents” features best-selling authors and the recipes of their favorite characters.

Jody Feinberg

On Christmas Eve, best-selling Boston novelist Jenna Blum will eat Norwegian ham balls and a Christmas pudding called rommegrod with her family in Minnesota.

“These are foods with stories behind them, and the recipes have been in my family for over 100 years,” said Blum, whose characters in “The Stormchasers” enjoy these dishes. “The ham balls are kind of candied, so we have the excuse for eating candy at dinner with our mashed potatoes and rummegrod.”

Unlike some cooks, Blum is not guarding her family recipes. Instead, she has made them and the stories behind them available to anyone who is interested.

But instead of looking on her blog or website, cooks will find them in the new book “Table of Contents” by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp, published by Adams Media in Avon, Mass.

Blum is one of 50 contemporary authors who share favorite recipes as well as reflections on their writing. The book is like an invitation to sit with the authors in their kitchen while they chat about food, the writing process and their inspirations.

Gelman, a former public relations consultant, and Krupp, a former history teacher, have a knack for connecting good food and literature and bringing together readers and writers. They have done so in two previous books, “The Book Club Cookbook” and “The Kids’ Book Club Book,” and they further their connections on their websites.

“We had the idea to do a more author-focused book because our readers were so interested in recipes for foods that connected with the books and the authors,” Gelman said.

“Table of Contents: From Breakfast with Anita Diamant to Dessert with James Patterson – a Generous Helping of Recipes, Writings, and Insights from Today’s Bestselling Authors” is organized alphabetically by author. Along with recipes, each entry features the author’s photo, list of published books, inspirations for their stories, and influences from other authors and books. Most recipes are for foods that appear in the novels, while others simply have personal meaning for the writer.

“We have everything from a simple recipe for fried plantains that a child could make to a complicated recipe for salmon en croute,” Gelman said.

Most of the authors Gelman and Levy contacted were enthusiastic about being included.

“It’s a really clever idea,” Hull novelist Jennifer Haigh said. “I was delighted when they approached me. It never would have occurred to me that it would make as good a cookbook as it does.”

Haigh submitted a recipe for a salad with gravlax, a Swedish cured salmon that her character, Dinah Kimble, prepares in the 2003 novel “Mrs. Kimble.” It’s a variation on a classic recipe Haigh often makes for parties where she substitutes coriander for dill.

“It’s a great holiday recipe because it’s a different take on gravlax,” Gelman said. “You could serve it on little toasts, but you also could put it on a salad.”

Like Blum and Haigh, a number of authors also chose foods they or their characters prepare for Christmas, New Year’s or other celebrations. Barbara Delinsky, a Newton writer with 19 New York Times bestsellers, offered a recipe for hot mulled cider, which gives her characters feelings of warmth and hope.

Adriana Trigiani of New York City submitted the appetizer Pia’s Crabbies, an English muffin topped with crabmeat and cheese from a Christmas scene in her novel “Rococo.”

“They’re cheesy and delicious and easy to make and serve,” Krupp said.

The more than 100 recipes include American comfort foods like meat loaf from Elizabeth Berg, and it features more exotic flavors from other countries like doro wot, an Ethiopian chicken curry, from best-selling author Abraham Verghese.

The desserts range from James Patterson’s easy-to-make Wacky cake, which he eats to celebrate the completion of a manuscript, to Boston author Jayne Anne Phillips’ more challenging white chocolate-coconut cake with butter cream frosting, which she included in the novel “Lark and Termite,” a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award.

Some recipes originate from history or fantasy: there’s an adaptation of medieval gingerbread from historical novelist Philippa Gregory, and a tart from the world of Oz by author Gregory Maguire.

Inspired by an 18th-century recipe, the holiday drink Fish House Punch is made from rum, peach brandy, pineapple juice and brown sugar. Katherine Howe, author of the 2009 historical novel “The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane,” wrote that the punch is similar to what her characters drank to celebrate.

Howe is one of the young, up-and-coming authors that readers may discover in “Table of Contents.”

“I’ve heard people say, ‘I’ve never heard of this author, but I love (her entry and recipe),” Krupp said. “Readers get interested in a new author.”

While Haigh is a well-known author, readers learn from her entry that the idea for “Mrs. Kimble” emerged after she saw a young mother falling down drunk at 10 a.m., oblivious to her small child. In her fourth novel, “Faith,” due out in May, Haigh again features food, in the form of a shepherd’s pie.

“One of the pleasures of writing is imagining all the details of a character’s life,” she said. “Touching on food in some way is part of making the character come to life.”

For more recipes, reading suggestions and author conversations, go to www.tableofcontentsbook.com and bookclubcookbook.com.

Norwegian Ham Balls

Meatballs:
1/2 pound ground pork

Sauce:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

To make the meatballs: Place all ingredients in a large bowl, and knead with hands until completely combined. Shape into meatballs between the size of a walnut and a ping-pong ball. Place in one 9-by-13-by-2-inch baking dish, one shallow roasting pan or a jelly roll pan, leaving a little space between meatballs.

To make the sauce: Place all ingredients in a small bowl. Stir mixture together until sugar is dissolved. Pour over meatballs. Bake 1 1/2 hours. During baking, remove pans from oven and turn meatballs to coat them with the candied sauce.

To re-heat meatballs, cover with aluminum foil and place in preheated 300-degree oven for 15 minutes.

Makes 6 1/2 dozen large meatballs.

Apple Black Walnut Cake with Lemon Glaze

Cake:
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Glaze:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan, or spray pan with a cooking spray that contains flour, such as Pam for Baking.

To make the cake: Combine apples and sugar and set aside. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, combine eggs, oil and vanilla extract. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Add flour mixture alternately with apples and sugar mixture, beating on medium speed to combine. Stir in walnuts.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 60-70 minutes, or until cake looks dry and nicely browned and has started to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Cool cake in pan on a wire rack set over a baking sheet for 10 minutes. Remove cake from pan and reset on rack.

To make the glaze: Whisk 2 tablespoons lemon juice, milk and confectioner’s sugar until smooth, adding more lemon juice gradually as needed until the glaze is thick but still pour-able. Pour half of the glaze over the warm cake and let cool one hour. Pour remaining glaze and allow it to set for a few minutes.

Serves 12 to 14.

Recipes from “Table of Contents,” by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp

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